Divorce with a Twist

ALL CASE STUDIES ARE SUMMARIES OF CASES MANAGED BY DIGITAL4NX GROUP, LTD.

(REFERENCES TO PERSONAL NAMES AND CLIENT FIRM NAMES ARE FICTIONAL)

Peter Jones was a successful executive with a prominent investment company. He lived with his wife of 19 years and two children in an upper class, suburban neighborhood. Peter had everything he could have dreamed for out of life, including a mistress for the last several years.

Peter's mistress pressured Peter into marrying her. After all, they were in love. However, Peter feared that divorcing his wife would have a severe negative financial impact on his estate. He was not willing to give away 50% of what he had worked so hard for.

As a successful and intelligent businessman, Peter knew he could think of a way to divorce his wife without losing any of his money. He came up with a plan to make it appear as though his wife was the one cheating on him! Peter sent flowers to his wife from a fictitious "lover”. He made numerous phone calls to the house from different pay phones, hanging up when the phone was answered. He wrote love letters to his wife, from Mr. "X". With so much incriminating evidence against his wife, he felt a divorce would be a simple and easy process.

When the divorce papers arrived, Peter's wife was in shock. How could this be happening? Why did Peter file for a divorce? And who was Mr. "X"?! Peter's wife contacted an attorney of her own; the facts just simply didn't make sense.

Enter Digital4nx Group. Mrs. Jones indicated that Peter used a PC in the den of their home. She said she looked through his MS-Outlook, but found nothing. Digital4nx Group analyzed the PC and discovered that Outlook had recently been reinstalled, and that it now contained no data. We then applied our diagnostic tools and were able to recover the Sent Items folder for the past 18 months. In the sent items folder, we found a plethora of e-mails from Peter to one Janet Janetti. In the e-mails Peter was gloating how he had sent flowers, wrote love letters, and made outside calls to his wife in order to provide evidence that his wife was having an affair. He also sent a number of seemingly authentic love letters to Ms. Janetti.

When the evidence we found was presented to Mr. Jones' attorney, they asked Mrs. Jones what she wanted. Mrs. Jones settled with her now ex-husband for an undisclosed sum.